Legal Protection of Mobile P2p Databases

The paper studies the legal protection of databases and especially the European database sui generis right from the mobile business perspective. First, we discuss about arguments in favor and against legal protection with respect to current databases. Next, we describe the future model of mobile peer-to-peer databases. Finally, we analyze how the database right suits to the future databases and the mobile business. We conclude that the definition of database in the EU directive has its shortcomings. In some cases mobile businesses should implement digital rights management into their database services if usage control is needed. We also find that the general idea of protecting substantial investments in databases will be valid in the mobile business.